Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This family friendly Italian classic dish Chicken Cacciatore is made in the slow cooker for a convenient weeknight dinner!

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

There is nothing better than the sweet aroma of bell peppers and tomatoes simmering slowly all day in this Chicken Cacciatore dish.

Cacciatore means “hunter” in Italian, often the chicken is dusted with flour and fried in oil before simmering in tomatoes with onions and peppers. This healthier version removes the skin and skips the deep frying, but you won’t miss it.

Slow Cooker Tips:

When using your slow cooker, I always recommend browning the meat and vegetables first for deeper flavors and a thicker sauce because liquids don’t evaporate in the slow cooker.

But for those of you who don’t want to dirty a pan, or don’t have that extra time to brown first I tested this out using the quick method of dumping it all in the slow cookers.

Verdict: The sauce wasn’t as thick as I would have liked, so my easy fix: I set the crock pot to high with the cover off for one additional hour to let it simmer and thicken and that worked fine. Perhaps adding a little flour would also help it thicken. If you want to add mushrooms to the sauce, this would also be a great time to do so.

If you like white meat, you can certainly use chicken breast but I highly recommend keeping the chicken on the bone. The bone is what gives you such great flavor, you can always remove it after.

What do you serve with Chicken Cacciatore?

We love it served over pasta, spaghetti squash, rice or polenta.

For the stove top version, see Chicken Cacciatore. Cooking on the stove differs from the crock pot, liquids evaporate quickly on the stove where as in the slow cooker nothing evaporates. When you add all the elements to your crock, you may be tempted to add broth but don’t. There will be plenty of liquid once it starts cooking. Also, flavors tend to get muted in the slow cooker, so I always adjust my herbs and seasoning in the end to get it where I want it.

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore

This family friendly Italian classic dish Chicken Cacciatore is made in the slow cooker for a convenient weeknight dinner!

Ingredients:

8 chicken thighs, with the bone, skin removed

28 oz can crushed tomatoes (Tuttorosso my favorite!)

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into strips

1/2 green bell pepper, sliced into strips

1/2 large onion, sliced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 bay leaf

salt and fresh pepper to taste

1/4 cup fresh herbs such as basil or parsley for topping

Directions:

Quick method:

Season chicken with salt and black pepper and place in the slow cooker.

Pour tomatoes over the chicken, top with onions and peppers, add oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper, give it a quick stir and cover.

Set crock pot to LOW 8 hours or HIGH 4 hours.

When the timer beeps, remove lid and keep the crock pot on HIGH one hour to help it thicken.

Better method but requires more prep:

Heat a large skillet over medium-high, lightly spray with oil (I use my Misto) and brown chicken on both sides a few minutes, season with salt and pepper. Add to the slow cooker.

To the skillet, spray with a little more oil and add onions and peppers. Sauté until juices release and the vegetables become golden, a few minutes.Add to the slow cooker. Pour tomatoes over the chicken and vegetables, add oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper, give it a quick stir and cover.

Set crock pot to LOW 8 hours or HIGH 4 hours. Remove bay leaf, adjust salt and pepper and enjoy!

This was fabulous! I made with chicken breast to adhere to WW Freestyle. Zero points for the sauce/chicken and used dreamfields rotini pasta for 5sp (3/4 cup). That was the only pasta I had on hand. Will make again! Great recipe Gina!

Easy, delicious, and only 5 Freestyle Weight Watcher Points, this crock-pot gem makes a delicious meal for 4. The meat falls off the bone easily and the flavor is just perfect. I “cheated” a bit by adding a potato cut into small, bite-sized pieces. If you are a purist and want to forego the almost obligatory pasta, try pouring your portion over half of a Sandwich-Thin as you’ll need something to mop up the delicious juicy sauce that this cacciatore will produce. I made this dish in a crock pot, in about 5 hours alternating between high and low temps, but Gina includes directions for cooking it (really fast) in an InstantPot. That’ll be my next project.It is so nice to know that delicious can also be healthy. Thanks!

Absolutely delicious. Added 1 small courgette (zucchini) sliced, 1 large carrot in small chunks, and handful of French (Bobby, pencil) beans in 2 inch pieces. Needed a little cornflour (cornstarch) paste to thicken. Took less time than expected to cook. Will definitely make this again, especially in winter/wet weather. So easy. Thank you very much. (Brit living in Spain)

Made this last night. I cook from Gina’s recipes ALL the time and love everything. This is the first time I didn’t fall in love. Very little flavor to this. I added plenty of slat and pepper, too. I think some garlic and Worcestershire and maybe some grated carrots would have added a lot. I will try that next time. The chicken just falls of the bone! Lovely! Don’t even need a knife!

Great recipe! Very tasty sauce. Meat was moist, tender and just fell off the bone! I did add minced garlic. I can’t make an Italian dish without garlic. Next time I will add corn starch. It was too thin for me.. I’m going to try some sliced black olives too. Thanks for the recipe!

I put this on WW recipe builder exactly as is with 8 servings and it came up 3 points not 5. Why the difference in points? If you use chicken breast its 0 with the new FS plan. This recipe is delish as is all on this site!!

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Gina Homolka, a busy mom of two girls, author and recipe developer here at Skinnytaste.com. My food philosophy is to eat seasonal, whole foods and maintain good portion control (everything in moderation!).